Alright, so you have all of your pictures taken, all of your articles written, but the things are still not going to the right direction? Let’s start from the beginning. Type your blog’s domain into your browser & load it on the new tab. You can have the best posts published out there, but if your blog’s layout looks like a mess- I’d leave straight away. Sorry, but that’s the truth. Your potential clients & sponsors also wouldn’t be too impressed. Don’t let this happen to you. Over few years of freelance work, I built thousands of blogs & let me give you some tips on how better blog design can turn your blog into an uplifting, successful business.

You might also like:

• Get My Free 7-day Course: Design Your Own Blog!
• 5 Secrets About Blogging As A Business.
• 3 Questions To Ask Yourself If You Feel Stuck At Growing Your Blog.

As you all probably know by now, I create premade blog design themes for Blogger & WordPress users. In all of my themes, I include 5 time-proven components that not only look good but also make it way easier for my clients to grow their blogs & businesses.

Here are some of the elements you should consider incorporating into your theme if you want to have a profitable, thriving blog:

SHARING BUTTONS

Look, if you’re trying to make a profit from your blog, you can’t do this alone. You have to make it easy for your readers to actually share your content with their friends, family, colleagues or even random strangers. The more, the merrier. Let your followers help you grow!

My favourite WordPress.org content sharing plugin is SumoMe. Since installing it on my own blog, I started using floating share buttons in all of my posts. Consequently, I saw a huge jump in my traffic coming from social media outlets. I can’t believe I haven’t done this earlier!

If you’re using Blogger- you have nothing to worry about as the platform already took care of this for you & you can enable your sharing buttons by going to LAYOUT area + clicking ‘Edit’ on the Blog widget.

You can even take a step further and include a hover Pinterest sharing button which will allow your readers to pin the chosen image straight away. Pinterest can become a magical tool in growing your online business. In fact, it’s been my biggest source of referral traffic for a while now.

INSTAGRAM FEED

Now this step might not be for everyone. However, even if you don’t feel like Instagram is the platform you’d like to showcase on your blog, I’d still suggest adding a feed in your footer or sidebar area. Presenting your daily or professional moments through Instagram and then displaying those images straight on your blog can help you bring that much-needed personality into your online business. Luckily, all of our blog design themes already include this feature!

AFFILIATE AREA

If you’re using affiliate links in your posts to make your blog profitable, you should also consider creating a separate affiliate area on your home page or footer area. Here on my blog, I created a shopping area at the bottom of the page where I showcase some of my top blog designs. Or you can even use the feeds you create on Amazon, RewardStyle or ShopStyleCollective. Here is the shopping widget I use in some of my premade themes:As you can see, it includes some of the clothing items I picked. These thumbnails are connected to the affiliate programme, and once you place this on your blog, you’d get profit if someone buys any of these items through your page. Please note, the widget should also blend into the overall look of your blog’s design. Otherwise, it might look spammy.

EASY TO FIND CONTACT FORM

PR companies usually have huge loads of work & getting noticed by the right campaign is a bit like a lottery. However, you can always improve your chances to win!

Make sure to make it super easy for your potential sponsors to actually get in contact with you. Create a separate Contact page and add a simple, well-designed contact form there. Or even simply display your biz e-mail address there.

OBVIOUS SUBSCRIPTION BOX

Including a visible subscription area into your blog can help you grow your blog hugely. As I discussed in my previous posts, building a newsletter list is the best thing you can do for your online business. Sending an engaging weekly or monthly e-mails can have a huge conversion rate which will help you turn your subscribers into customers without any extra expenses.

If you’re a total newbie and have no idea where to start, read this post here: WHY YOUR BLOG NEEDS A NEWSLETTER LIST & HOW TO START ONE

Here it is folks! I really hope you’ll find this post useful. Just a pretty website doesn’t mean a thing if you’re not smart about the functionality you include.

P.S. subscribe to Design Your Own Blog E-course if you’re currently trying to create a blog design yourself!